Relatives attend CI611 ceremony

Some 3,000 people gathered in Taipei yesterday to remember the 225 who were killed when a China Airlines (CAL) plane ploughed into the Taiwan Strait.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Yu Shyi-kun and other officials joined bereaved families and friends of the victims at a sombre memorial service in Taiwan's capital.

With a bugle playing in the background, Chen laid a wreath beneath a wall hung with the pictures and names of the dead and behind an alter decorated with white flowers.

He also lit a candle which floated in sea water collected from the site of the crash in a traditional ceremony which symbolized that the victims' spirit and souls would remain with their loved ones.

Weeping family members, wearing a single white flower in their buttonholes, laid white chrysanthemums in front of the altar in a gesture of grief.

Only 158 bodies have so far been recovered from the crash site, and before the service began some family members petitioned Chen asking the search mission be continued until the remaining 67 are found.

Chen accepted the petition and pledged to continue the search which Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council expects will probably continue for another six weeks.

All 206 passengers and 19 crew on board the plane were killed May 25 when it broke into four chunks in mid-air and ploughed into the waters of the Taiwan Strait.

The plane's two "black boxes" -- the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder -- were retrieved from the sea on Wednesday and Thursday.

Kay Yong (戎凱), the council director, said that the council was expected to complete reading the data in the black boxes Monday and release the data information Tuesday.

The US National Transportation Safety Bureau, Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing Company and engine-maker Pratt and Whitney have joined the investigation into the crash.

CAL said it will meet with families of the victims tomorrow for the first round of discussion on compensation.

Meanwhile, one of the engines from the jet was retrieved yesterday morning by the search team. According to the Cabinet's Aviation Council, it was engine number one, one of the engines on the right side of the airliner.

The engine was found near the wreckage of the front portion of the plane. The ASC said the search team would clean it before bringing it back to Penghu for inspection.

"The preliminary inspection will focus on determining how bad it [the engine] has been damaged, whether there is any outer or inner damage or whether there is any trace burning," Tracy Jen (任靜怡), spokesperson of ASC, said.